Press Release: Protest as Scandal-Ridden President of Honduras Meets with Members of U.S. Congress

Written by Arturo J. Viscarra

Tuesday, 21 March 2017 15:25

For immediate release March 21, 2017

Contact: Arturo Viscarra, 617-820-3008
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Family members of the slain
Honduran environmentalist and Indigenous leader, Berta Caceres, and
other activists confront President of Honduras during meeting with
Members of U.S. Congress In wake of serious controversies, JOH asks U.S. Representatives for continued aid

For more photos and video of the protest in Cannon House Office Building, click here

Washington, DC – Protestors, including a sister and niece of the late Berta Caceres, blocked the door to the room where Honduran
President Juan Orlando Hernandez was meeting with members of the House
Central America Caucus today. President Hernández’s meeting is at the
invitation of Central America Caucus founder and co-chair Rep. Norma
Torres (D-CA), and follows Rep. Torres response to Caceres’ family members declining their request that she cosponsor
the HR 1299, the “Berta Caceres Human Rights in Honduras Act.” Caceres’ family members had sent Rep. Torres an open letter urging that she cosponsor HR 1299, citing ongoing murders and threats
to social leaders and activists and the flawed investigation into
Caceres’ murder. The bill would suspend U.S. support for Honduras’
security forces “until such time as human rights violations by Honduran
security forces cease and their perpetrators are brought to justice.”Leaked court documents indicate that at least two of those indicted for Ms. Caceres's murder
received extensive U.S. military and intelligence training, including at
the infamous School of the Americas.

“A government that fails to protect
its citizens and whose security forces are implicated in attacks and
killings of activists should not be receiving security funding and
training from the U.S. government,” the family’s letter states.

President Hernandez’s visit to DC to
meet with the Caucus also comes amidst controversy in Honduras over his
intention to run for re-election. Under the Honduran constitution,
presidents are limited to one term, but the Supreme Court is allowing
Hernandez’s run in 2017. The Honduran Congress removed several Supreme
Court judges in 2012 in a “technical coup,” however, after ruling a
police reform law unconstitutional. Hernandez was the president of the
Congress at the time.

Another scandal looms impicating Hernandez's family, party, and cabinet in drug trafficking. A
DEA informant and former member of the Cachiros cartel, Devis Leonel
Rivera Maradiaga, testified in a New York court last week that he had
discussed a bribery scheme with President Hernandez’s brother,
Congressman Antonio “Tony” Hernández. The hearing was about former
president Porfirio Lobo's son, Fabio Porfirio Lobo, who plead guilty to
trafficking drugs last year. Rivera Maradiaga has also testified that
former President Lobo took bribes from the Cachiros, offering protection
from authorities, and from extradition, in return. President Hernández
is from the same political party, the National Party, as former
president Lobo.

Rivera Maradiaga testified that he
provided a recording of his meeting with Tony Hernández, in which
Hernández requests a bribe, to the DEA. Rivera Maradiaga has also
provided courtroom testimony that ties current Honduran Security
Minister Julian Pacheco to the Cachiros cartel.

Ms. Caceres's niece stated, "One
of my questions to the U.S. government is why are we giving secuity aid
to a corrupt government, a government that is protecting
narco-traffickers?". She also yelled to President Hernandez as he left the meeting amid heavy security, asking why he refuses to allow an international investigation into the murder of her aunt. She was ignored.

One year ago we awoke to the devastating news that
Berta Cáceres, the renowned Indigenous and social movement leader of Honduras,
had been assassinated. This week The Guardian reported that two of those
charged with Berta's murder were trained by the United States in Ft.
Benning, Georgia, home of the School of the Americas (SOA/WHINSEC).
One of them, Army Major Mariano Diaz, was the chief of army intelligence a the
time of Berta's murder. He had been a direct commander of a third suspect,
Henry Javier Hernandez, a former special forces sniper who has admitted to
being at Berta's home when she was murdered. A source quoted in the
Guardian article explains, "The murder of Berta Cáceres has all of the
characteristics of a well-planned operation designed by military
intelligence."US-trained military intelligence.

We must continue to fight for justice for Berta and
the people of Honduras in our own communities, in the streets, and in the halls
of power. Yesterday, the one-year anniversary of Berta's murder, Representative
Hank Johnson (D-GA) and 24 other Congresspeople re-introduced the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act in the 2017
Congress (HR 1299). Please take action by asking your Representative to
co-sponsor this important piece of legislation, which would suspend US
military/security aid to Honduras due to their obvious ties to human rights
violations.

Call the Capitol Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask
to be connected to your representative's office. Once you are through, ask to
speak with or leave a message with your representative's Latin America policy
aide. Here's a sample message you can share with them:

"My name is _____. I am a constituent from (your
city and state). I am calling to ask Rep. _____ to co-sponsor HR 1299, The
Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act, calling for a suspension of U.S.
security aid to Honduras until human rights violations committed by the
Honduran security forces cease. The Honduran security forces have been
implicated in repression against activists, and even though a US trained
military intelligence official has been charged in Berta's murder, those who
ordered Berta's murder remain free, and environmental and Indigenous leaders
continue to be threatened, attacked, and criminalized. Can I count on Rep
_____ to sign on? Please call me this week at (your phone number) to let me
know if Rep. _____ will sign."

While Army Major Mariano Diaz and 7 others, including
an executive of the hydroelectric dam company that Berta opposed, have been
charged with her murder, there have been numerous irregularities in the
investigation that suggest those who ordered Berta's murder will be
protected.None of those who gave the order to murder Berta have
been charged and the repression against activists continues.

The Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act is ever
more important given these new, but unsurprising connections between US aid and
human rights violations in Honduras. On February 1, 2017, the US and Honduras
signed an agreement for the disbursement of the first $125 million dollars of
the "Alliance for Prosperity" (or "Biden
Plan"), a massive funding package originally touted as a 'Plan Colombia'
for Central America. While Indigenous leaders, journalists, lawyers,
members of the LGBTQ community, environmental defenders, and community leaders
continue to be murdered, threatened, followed, attacked, and criminalized, the
US government has only increased its support of the repressive Honduran
regime. It is past time that the US stop training and financing the
Honduran security forces. Please call/pressure your representative now to
co-sponsor HR 1299, the Berta Cáceres Human Rights in Honduras Act.

Berta was an exceptional, visionary leader whose
message and struggle is needed today more than ever. Her life and legacy
call us all to act against US imperialism, militarization, patriarchy, and
corporate pillaging of the environment and communal goods. As Berta
called out during her Goldman Prize acceptance speech, "Wake up
humanity, there is no more time.... The Gualcarque River has called us, as have
the others that are seriously threatened. We must answer. The
militarized, fenced in, and poisoned Mother Earth, where elemental rights are
systematically violated, demands we act. Let us construct societies
capable of co-existing in a just and dignified way."

SOAW Mourns the Death of Charlie Liteky and Celebrates His Life and Contribution to the SOAW Movement

Tuesday, 21 February 2017 23:29

SOAW mourns the death of Charlie Liteky, as well as his wife Judy Liteky five months earlier. Both Charlie and Judy were instrumental in the SOA Watch Movement. Charlie, a former Army Chaplain, made headlines when he returned the Medal of Honor he had received as an Army Chaplain during the Vietnam War in protest of the Reagan Administration's Contra war in Nicaragua in the 1980s. Charlie and Roy Bourgeois, together with 7 others, held a 35 day water-only fast outside of the School of the Americas, helping to spark the SOAW Movement. Following the fast, Charlie, Roy, and Charlie's brother Patrick, planted crosses with the photographs of the Jesuit priests assassinated in El Salvador, throwing their own blood on the walls of the SOA. When sentenced to prison, they became the SOAW Movement's first prisoners of conscience, beginning a long tradition of civil disobedience. Judy Liteky also played an important role in SOAW, as one of the filers of a lawsuit to try to force the Pentagon to release the names of the soldiers trained at the SOA-WHINSEC. Charlie and Judy will be greatly missed and we are grateful to their contributions to the creation of the SOAW movement, the struggle to close the SOA and against US empire and wars around the world. Read the National Catholic Reporter Article about Charlie here.

These
are trying times, but they are also filled with intense resistance that
gives us hope that a different future is possible. We must continue to
work for a world of justice and peace. Berta Cáceres' visionary
leadership and resistance during her life and the steadfast continuation
of the struggle by her colleagues in COPINH inspires us to continue the
long-term work of resisting U.S. empire and domination around the
world, including stopping U.S. military aid and training in Honduras.

March 2nd marks the 1 year anniversary of the
brutal assassination of Berta, and we encourage you to organize an event
this March to remember Berta and call for an end to the U.S.
militarization of Honduras. Berta's organization, COPINH has issued a call for actions around the world on March 2nd as well as for events throughout the month of March (Read Statement Here). We share a few ideas and possible dates, by no means all, here:

March 2 -
Global Day of Action and Anniversary of Berta's assassination: Organize
an action or a Vigil for Berta and so many others who have lost their
lives speaking out for justice. If your Representative or Senator
supports continued U.S. funding of Honduras' security forces, hold the
event outside his/her office (contact
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for more on your
Rep. or Senator's position)

March 8 - International Women's Day: Show a film on Berta and her legacy - click here for some suggested videos/documentaries

March 27 - Anniversary of COPINH: Organize a protest against US military aid to
Honduras and learn more about COPINH's righteous struggle

March ? - Participate in an protest in solidarity with refugees & migrants;
bring posters of Berta to call attention to the U.S. role in creating
forced migration from Honduras

We
look forward to hearing your ideas and events you may be planning.
Please contact us for contacts, materials, and information about your
Representative/Senator's position or anything else you need to make an
action, vigil, or event happen near your home. If you plan an event
please let us know so we can share it. A number of organizations around
the country are planning actions, and we'll be posting information on
events already being planned in Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago and
other locations next week.

To get involved in this Call to Action, SOAW
advocacy work (e.g. pushing to suspend US military/security aid to
Honduras, or opposing the "Alliance for Prosperity"), or to be a part of the SOAW Honduras Solidarity Collective, please email me at
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Grassroots power works! Together we will
challenge U.S. Imperialism in Honduras, which contributes so much to the
forced migration of Honduran refugees, tramples on Native people's
rights, and facilitates the destruction of the environment.